Who actually pays what at closing — and why it changes at the county line.
In Santa Clara County the seller customarily pays the escrow fee, the owner’s title policy and the transfer tax. Drive over the hill to Santa Cruz and escrow splits down the middle. Same state, same contract form, different closing statement.
None of this is law. All of it is custom, and custom is negotiable.
Every allocation on this page is local practice, not a legal requirement. The California residential purchase agreement lets the parties assign each cost line by line, and in a slower market they do — a buyer asking the seller to cover escrow in Santa Clara County is asking for nothing unusual, and a seller in a hot pocket sometimes pushes the owner’s policy the other way.
The one genuine exception is the documentary transfer tax. That is imposed by statute on the transfer itself, and while the parties can agree who writes the check, the tax is owed either way and the county will not record the deed without it.
What follows is what a Santa Clara or Santa Cruz County closing statement usually looks like, why the two differ, and the three places the printed sheets everyone passes around are currently out of date.
Selling in Santa Clara County
You pay escrow, the owner’s title policy, and the transfer tax. That is the most seller-heavy allocation in the Bay Area, and it is why a Santa Clara net sheet looks worse than a San Mateo one at the same price.
Selling in Santa Cruz County
Escrow splits fifty-fifty. The owner’s policy is the line where practice genuinely varies — settle it in writing rather than assuming. Transfer tax is still yours.
Both sides of the hill, side by side.
On a $2,000,000 sale the escrow line alone is the difference between carrying the whole fee and carrying half of it.
| Line item | Santa Clara County | Santa Cruz County |
|---|---|---|
| Escrow fee | Seller | Split 50/50 |
| Owner’s title policy (protects the buyer) | Seller | Varies — see below |
| Lender’s title policy (protects the buyer’s lender) | Buyer | Buyer |
| County documentary transfer tax — $1.10 per $1,000 | Seller | Seller |
| City transfer tax, where one exists | Seller, by custom | Seller, by custom |
| Natural hazard disclosure report | Seller | Seller |
| County / city compliance items (sewer lateral, retrofit, point-of-sale inspections) | Seller, where required | Seller, where required |
| HOA documents and transfer fee | Usually seller for documents; transfer fee varies | Usually seller for documents; transfer fee varies |
| Recording fees | Buyer | Buyer |
| Property tax and HOA prorations | Split at close of escrow by days owned — not a fee, an accounting adjustment | |
The one line worth pinning down early in Santa Cruz County. Title companies’ own county sheets generally show the owner’s policy split fifty-fifty there. Local practice frequently puts it on the seller instead. Both are defensible as “customary,” which means it is really a negotiated term wearing a custom’s clothes. Settle it in the contract rather than discovering it on the estimated closing statement.
Three things the county closing-cost sheets have not caught up with.
Title companies publish these sheets as a free service and revise them periodically. City transfer taxes change between revisions, and the editions circulating right now predate three changes in my own market. Every figure below is current as of September 2026.
San Jose — Measure E starts at $2,300,000, not $2,000,000
The threshold moved to $2,300,000 on July 1, 2025 and adjusts every five years. Sheets still showing $2,000,000 will over-state the tax on a large band of San Jose sales.
And the structure catches people out: San Jose is a charter city, so its base $3.30 per $1,000 conveyance tax stacks on the county’s $1.10 rather than being credited against it. Measure E then applies to the full consideration, not just the amount over the line — 0.75% above $2,300,000, 1.0% above $5,000,000, 1.5% above $10,000,000. Crossing $2,300,000 by a single dollar costs about $17,250.
Mountain View — two tiers since Measure G, not a flat $3.30
Since December 20, 2024 Mountain View charges $3.30 per $1,000 at $6,000,000 or less, and $15.00 per $1,000 on the entire consideration above $6,000,000. It is a cliff, not a ramp: a sale at $6,000,001 owes about $90,000 in city tax where a sale at $6,000,000 owes about $19,800. Sheets still printing a flat $3.30 understate the top tier by roughly $70,000.
City of Santa Cruz — Measure C did not exist when those sheets were printed
Inside city limits, since July 1, 2026, there is a graduated transfer tax on the portion of the price above $1.8 million. Unlike Measure E it is marginal: 0.5% from $1.8M to $2.5M, 1% to $3.5M, 1.5% to $4.5M, 2% above that, capped at $200,000. The city’s own worked example — a $2,600,000 sale owes $4,500. The base includes debt remaining on the property.
The inheritance rule, stated properly: a transfer from a decedent or their trust to heirs or beneficiaries is exempt. The subsequent sale by the estate, trust or heir to a buyer is fully taxable. I see the first half of that sentence quoted on its own constantly, and it costs people real money. Thresholds and the cap CPI-adjust annually from July 1, 2027.
Palo Alto remains a flat $3.30 per $1,000 on top of the county rate. Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Santa Clara, Saratoga and Sunnyvale have no city transfer tax, and neither do Capitola, Scotts Valley or Watsonville — in all of those the county’s $1.10 per $1,000 is the whole of it.
What the transfer tax actually costs, city by city.
Every figure below is computed from the current ordinances — county tax plus city tax plus any surtax — and matches the net proceeds calculator to the dollar.
| Sale price | Most of both counties no city tax |
San Jose | Palo Alto | Mountain View | City of Santa Cruz |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1,800,000 | $1,980 | $7,920 | $7,920 | $7,920 | $1,980 |
| $2,300,000 | $2,530 | $10,120 | $10,120 | $10,120 | $5,030 |
| $2,500,000 | $2,750 | $29,750 | $11,000 | $11,000 | $6,250 |
| $3,000,000 | $3,300 | $35,700 | $13,200 | $13,200 | $11,800 |
| $5,000,000 | $5,500 | $59,500 | $22,000 | $22,000 | $44,000 |
| $6,000,000 | $6,600 | $86,400 | $26,400 | $26,400 | $65,100 |
| $8,000,000 | $8,800 | $115,200 | $35,200 | $128,800 | $107,300 |
| $10,000,000 | $11,000 | $144,000 | $44,000 | $161,000 | $149,500 |
County tax of $1.10 per $1,000 is included in every column. Rates current as of September 2026: San Jose Measure E thresholds effective July 1, 2025, Mountain View Measure G effective December 20, 2024, City of Santa Cruz Measure C effective July 1, 2026.
The cliffs, and why one dollar matters
San Jose’s and Mountain View’s surtaxes apply to the entire sale price once the threshold is crossed, not just the amount above it. That turns a threshold into a cliff, and it is the single most expensive thing a seller in either city can be careless about when accepting an offer.
| City | At the threshold | Transfer tax | One dollar over | Transfer tax | Cost of that dollar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose | $2,300,000 | $10,120 | $2,300,001 | $27,370 | $17,250 |
| San Jose | $5,000,000 | $59,500 | $5,000,001 | $72,000 | $12,500 |
| San Jose | $10,000,000 | $144,000 | $10,000,001 | $194,000 | $50,000 |
| Mountain View | $6,000,000 | $26,400 | $6,000,001 | $96,600 | $70,200 |
The City of Santa Cruz is the exception, and it matters. Measure C is marginal — only the slice of the price inside each band is taxed at that band’s rate — so there is no cliff at all. Crossing $2,500,000 or $4,500,000 by a dollar costs nothing extra. It is also capped at $200,000 per transaction, which begins to bind at roughly $13,500,000. Anyone applying San Jose’s logic to a Santa Cruz sale, or the reverse, will be badly wrong in one direction or the other.
Why I won’t print other cities’ rates here.
Plenty of California cities levy a surtax on higher-priced sales — San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, Albany, Emeryville, Piedmont, San Leandro, Hayward, Richmond, El Cerrito, San Rafael, San Mateo, Hillsborough, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Vallejo in the north; Los Angeles, Culver City and Santa Monica in the south. I could put all of them in a table. I would rather not, and here is the honest reason.
They move constantly, and a stale table is worse than no table. Berkeley is the cleanest example: the sheet that prompted this page shows 1.5% up to $1.8 million and 2.5% above it. The current threshold is $1.7 million, it recalculates annually, and Measure W restructures the whole thing into three tiers on January 1, 2027. Any figure I published today would be wrong within months, and you would have no way of knowing which line had gone stale.
So: the two counties on this page are mine, I maintain them, and I will stand behind every number above. For anywhere else, get the figure from the city itself or from the escrow officer handling that transaction — and check the date on whatever sheet you were handed.
Three questions that catch almost everything
- Does the city have its own transfer tax on top of the county’s, or is it credited against it? Charter cities generally stack. General-law cities generally credit.
- Is the surtax marginal or on the full price? This is the difference between a ramp and a cliff, and it decides whether an extra dollar of price can cost you five figures.
- When was the threshold last adjusted, and how often does it move? Ask the city, not a printed sheet.
Customary allocations in the counties my clients actually move to.
Downsizers leave Silicon Valley for the coast, the foothills or the wine country. The closing statement follows local custom at the destination, which is rarely the custom you just left.
| County | Escrow fee | Owner’s title policy | County transfer tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Clara | Seller | Seller | Seller |
| Santa Cruz | Split 50/50 | Split by the sheets; often seller in practice | Seller |
| Monterey | Split 50/50 | Seller | Seller |
| San Benito | Seller | Seller | Seller |
| San Mateo | Buyer | Buyer | Seller |
| San Francisco | Buyer | Buyer | Folded into the city transfer tax |
| Alameda | Buyer | Buyer | Seller |
| Contra Costa | Buyer | Buyer | Seller |
| Marin | Buyer | Buyer | Seller |
| Napa | Buyer | Buyer | Seller |
| Sonoma | Buyer | Buyer | Seller |
| Solano | Buyer | Buyer | Seller |
| Sacramento | Split 50/50 | Seller | Seller |
| Placer | Split 50/50 | Seller | Seller |
| El Dorado | Split 50/50 | Split 50/50 | Seller |
| Nevada | Split 50/50 | Split 50/50 | Seller |
Customary allocations as published in title insurers’ county closing-cost guides and consistent with local practice as of September 2026. Several counties — Alameda and Contra Costa in particular — vary by sub-market and by brokerage, and every line is negotiable in the contract. Confirm with escrow before you rely on a number.
What each of these lines actually is.
Escrow fee
Escrow holds the money and the documents, follows both sides’ written instructions, and will not release anything until every condition is met. The fee scales roughly with price. It is the single largest negotiable line on a Santa Clara County seller’s statement, because the seller carries all of it there.
Owner’s vs. lender’s title policy
The owner’s policy protects the buyer’s ownership against defects in the chain of title — a forged old deed, an unreleased lien, an heir nobody knew about. The lender’s policy protects only the lender, only up to the loan balance, and the buyer pays for it. They are separate policies and separate charges, which is why “who pays title” is an incomplete question.
Documentary transfer tax
$1.10 per $1,000 of consideration county-wide in both Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. Charter cities can add their own on top. This one is a tax, not a fee — it is owed on the transfer regardless of who the contract says pays it, and the recorder collects it at recording.
Natural hazard disclosure report
A required report telling the buyer whether the property sits in a flood, fire, seismic or landslide zone. Seller-paid, modest, and non-negotiable in substance — in the Santa Cruz Mountains it is often the document that shapes the buyer’s insurance conversation more than anything else in the package.
Point-of-sale compliance
Some jurisdictions require something to be inspected, retrofitted or certified before a sale can close — sewer laterals, water heater strapping and smoke and carbon monoxide alarms are the usual ones, and septic and well testing are routine in the San Lorenzo Valley. These land on the seller and are worth identifying before you list, not during escrow.
Prorations
Property taxes, HOA dues and sometimes rent are divided at the close by the days each party owned the property. This is arithmetic, not a charge — but on a home with a very low Prop 13 assessment, the tax proration is small enough to surprise a buyer who has budgeted from the new assessed value instead.
Knowing who pays is half of it. The other half is the number.
The net proceeds calculator stacks the county and city transfer taxes correctly for San Jose, Palo Alto, Mountain View and the City of Santa Cruz, then takes it through commission, the §121 exclusion and capital gains. Escrow and title quotes vary by company — in my experience 0.5% to 1.5% of the price covers escrow, title, inspections and credits together, which is the range the calculator uses.
Run your net proceedsFour worth answering plainly.
Can I just ask the buyer to pay escrow in Santa Clara County?
Yes. It is a term of the contract like any other. Whether it survives negotiation depends on how the property is positioned and how much competition there is — in a multiple-offer situation it often does, and on a listing that has sat it usually does not. What you should not do is assume the customary allocation is fixed and never ask.
Why does the same house net differently in Santa Clara than in San Mateo?
Because San Mateo County custom puts escrow and the owner’s title policy on the buyer, and Santa Clara puts both on the seller. Nothing about the house or the price changed — the county line did. This is exactly the kind of thing that belongs in a written net sheet before you pick a list price, not after.
I inherited a home in the City of Santa Cruz. Am I exempt from Measure C?
Only for the inheritance itself. The transfer from the decedent or their trust to you is exempt. When you then sell to a buyer, that sale is fully taxable — the ordinance applies the tax regardless of how the transfer is accomplished or the relationship of the parties. The short version circulating locally, “inheritances are exempt,” is only the first half of the rule and I have watched it mislead people. The full picture is on the trustee & heir playbook.
The title company sheet my agent gave me says something different. Who is right?
On the escrow and title customs, probably the sheet — those change slowly. On city transfer taxes, check the date in the footer. The editions circulating as of September 2026 predate San Jose’s $2,300,000 Measure E threshold, Mountain View’s Measure G tiers and the City of Santa Cruz Measure C entirely. Title companies publish these as a free service and say plainly they are subject to change; the responsibility to check the date is the reader’s.
Not ready to move? Stay in the loop anyway.
Once a month: what actually sold on both sides of the hill, what changed in California property-tax law, and the occasional honest “don’t sell yet.” No listings spam. Unsubscribe whenever.
Want a written net sheet with the right allocations on it?
Tell me the address and roughly what you think it is worth. I’ll send back a real closing statement estimate — the correct county custom, the correct city transfer tax, and the tax picture underneath it. No cost and no obligation.